These initiatives all promote the use of ICTs to tackle social inclusion, from young people using ICTs to improve life chances, through raising the skills and working conditions for workers in general and migrant workers in particular, to systems for supporting families balancing work with care for elderly relations and to build industry capable of delivering solutions for the challenges of health and demographic change.

In this context, digital inclusion (including access, skills/competences and usages) are crucial enablers for achieving the above social inclusion objectives, but also for modernising the economy and ensuring Europe has the world's most skilled and productive workforce in the digital age. Particularly important is to focus on the needs of low skilled people, ageing population, unemployed youth and unemployed older workers, and on the mismatch between emerging demands of the Digital Economy and the skills available in the market place.

The IPTS has been, since 2006, providing specific policy support and research activities to support the implementation of eInclusion policies and more recently the Europe 2020 Strategy, focusing in particular on Digital Inclusion initiatives and the enabling role of ICTs for inclusion and on Social Inclusion initiatives making use of ICTs.

In the following sub-sections, you can find all relevant IPTS projects, publications and events related to each specific area.